The Miraculous Gift

Day 52: I Samuel 1-3

Not all women want to be mothers, but for those mothers who want to become one and can't, well, that has got to be so painful. I have known a lot of women who have either had a hard time getting pregnant or who never were able to conceive a child. They prayed fervently asking God for a child and either had to wait for years or were ultimately told no. I'm not sure how women deal with that and I do wonder why God won't say yes to their prayers. What's more is that I can't think of a specific instance in the Bible where God doesn't say "yes" to a barren woman's prayer.

Here at the beginning of I Samuel is Hannah. She, like Sarah, Rachel, Samson's mom, and Elizabeth (John the Baptist's mom to come) is a barren woman who desperately wants a child. She has to wait a long time, and she prays and prays for a child. She even tells God that she will dedicate her child to him if he blesses her with one. Eventually, Hannah does conceive, and she gives her son Samuel to the Lord.

What's unique about Samuel (and Isaac, Joseph, Samson, and John the Baptist) as opposed to all those other children born in Israel or elsewhere is that Samuel is a gift from God. Yes, all children are gifts from God (they're miracles, I believe), but Samuel (and the other four boys) are more than just gifts for their families; they are gifts from God for the entire community. Samuel is going to be a gift for the Israelites. God uses him.

God also uses these women who struggle getting pregnant. They are the ones who turn to the Lord for hope. They are the ones who dedicate their children to the Lord. Who trust God at his word. Who help train and guide their children. The process these women go through during their struggle to have a child changes them. They grow in the Lord. They grow in their faith, and I can imagine that they are different mothers than they were before.

While the Bible may not provide examples of women who try to conceive and can't, it does show us women who are examples of hoping and trusting in the Lord. During their lowest points, they find strength and faith in the Lord. We, too--no matter what situation we find ourselves in or whether we personally deal with this personal struggle or not--can look to these women as models of where to turn when something does not turn out as we thought it would, or even as we had hoped. These women point us to the Lord--the one in whom we can find our strength. The faith of these women forever changed the outcome of their communities; it changed the story of Israel and the one in which we, too, find our identity.

Like these women, we are on our own journeys, and no matter what pain or suffering we are experiencing, we can find strength through the physical and faith struggles of these five women.